Decluttering the mind. What does it do for a person? Why is it something we should aspire to? For me, I can say that I experience greater peace of mind and that I more easily get the results that satisfy my existence. There are benefits for my leadership ability too. Getting to this point has taken over 40 years and many twists and turns since I became aware that I needed to change aspects of how I dealt with life’s challenges.  I’d like to share with you some of the experiments I undertook in the hope that something will chime with your own experience.

Learning what doesn’t work

My journey began by doing courses in management training and immersing myself in the self-help book genre, which I thought was the answer to my prayers. This phase lasted  about 10 years; in hindsight it only made my life worse. This is because my internal critic decided I must be a real basket case as none of the great ideas I read and heard about made me any better. My critical inner voice only added to the clutter; at least I learned what didn’t work.

Then I read about the power of meditation and what it can do for your life and mental health. However, despite a number of attempts at different approaches, the clutter didn’t allow me the space to even get started! Yet deep down I knew it was something to come back to.

Accepting, not judging

Thankfully, I had more positive experiences that helped me gradually reach the level of peace of mind I currently experience. Studying Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) and Process Work helped me become less judgemental of myself as I gradually learned there is no perfect way to live your life. Each person’s journey is unique to them and them alone. This helped me make peace with my inner critic who took up so much of my internal chatter. It is estimated that for most people the critical inner voice makes up 70% of our mental dialogue.

Another milestone in my journey towards an uncluttered mind was to make peace with my past, to have no regrets and, as a result, no guilt. Eventually, I went even further and realised I couldn’t have become the person I now am without all the stupid and silly mistakes I made. I now treat everything as a gift even though whatever happened may have appeared to be a disaster at the time.  I have realised that the biggest disasters are my greatest teachers. I now challenge myself to find some wisdom or learning from each setback, even the smallest thing that doesn’t go my way.

I have also learned to accept and understand the saying  ‘What’s for you won’t pass you by’, while living with the paradox that for the door to open you have to either knock or have a key to unlock it.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear

In between all of these bouts of greater self-awareness I went back to meditation, which I can now successfully do at the drop of a hat. Meditation to me is being present at any time I choose during any task I am engaged in, including writing this blog. Again, this proves that what is for you will happen when you are ready. Another way of putting this is, ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear’.  

Towards better leadership

For leaders out there in business or otherwise, my learning from my journey towards a less cluttered mind is that being at peace with your life enriches your leadership skills. As a leader, you also enrich the culture of the organisation with this approach. Having an uncluttered mind gives you greater power to handle the fast pace of change we are experiencing in the world, while at the same time accepting that you have no power over external events except how you respond to them. Another way to put it is that an uncluttered mind helps you understand what you can control and what you can’t, which is a useful ability in business and life.

What influences did you have in your life’s journey that support you to cope with a more complex and challenging leadership environment?